Silva Compasses are some of the best made and most accurate compasses available. I personally own the Silva Forecaster 610 and the Matchcase 346 Aluminuim compasses. The Forecaster goes with me on every trip and the Matchcase 346 rides in my truck's Scramble Bag.

Here's the link to the website for the Polaris model:
http://store.silvacompass.com/products/345165/Polaris_177

The site includes the compass information guide that comes with the Polaris and it's free download.

First Impressions:

Wow! As good as the Silva compasses are, the "how to" guide is great! If you really want to know how to use a compass, this is one of the best guides I've seen in a long time.

The Polaris is credit card size and 1/3" thick. It's crystal clear and accurate. (I check it against my other compasses.)

One thing I really like about the Polaris, is the rotating bearing dial (in black on picture) that you can use for setting your bearing DIFFERENT from North.

This may not seem important to the outdoors man, but IF you are stuck in a large building or underground sewer - it's critical. Here's why...

When you twist and turn around objects or walls, you still need to be able to come back to your "bearing". Lets say you want to go West. You stumble around through several corridors (never seeing the sun) till you walked into a large dark warehouse that your flashlight won't illuminate across it. Now you have to walk using your compass and the bearing of West you wanted, but holding your compass up to point North and the bearing dial to West. Get the idea?

The Polaris' clear plastic also allows you to use it over a map. (Download the directions above and you'll get good instructions.) Having a see-thru compass makes it easy to do.

Testing:

Okay, I'm going to tell you that this compass IS accurate. I checked it against my other compasses of various brands and types. So I'm going to give it a good rating for its accuracy.

Next test, durability! I tried to flex the plastic and the base broke! I really didn't try hard, but the plastic snapped quickly! (Picture right, knife points at crack.)

Compass unit wasn't damaged but the base (holder) cracked on one side and the liquid filled capsule (on right of picture) remained intact AND accurate even outside the holder.

So even though the base and compass was in pieces it still worked.

Final Analysis:

Silva makes a good compass. The Polaris model is a great value for the quality and accuracy in a compass of this type. Regardless of the breakage in the mounting, the compass remained accurate and effective.

RATING:
Accuracy: 5 for it's type.
Durability: 2 for the base, 5 for the compass unit.


Ironhand